PNW Cuisine (food, places, steak)

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by pdxMIKEpdx

Every year about this time my family heads up to a small lake by Mt Hood that we use as a base for deer hunting.
The lake is chock full of big crawdads.
We have four crawdad traps that were purchased at BiMart.
We use a little bacon for bait, attach a rope and in the evening throw them in the water.
They are retrieved the next day in the early afternoon and we have a huge crawdad boil for dinner.
It's my favorite part of the camp!

I love dipping the tails in a little lemon butter. It is an open secret that Oregon has delicious fresh water lobsters. They're small, but it's easy to catch enough for a real feed.

OTOH, last night I had Spanish rice made with fresh tomatoes and onions, which tasted nothing like the Franco-American out of the box paste. It got rave reviews.

[ReturningWest]

I should have never read through this thread...I already miss home so much and I'm stuck in the "fry everything" and goop sauce part of of the country

I LOVE salmon and can't get it here without it being so over frozen...I can't stand it...you can forget halibut and good crab...crab cakes yuck.

I'm so salivating over this thread....sigh. I think of all the yummy things to eat in Oregon that I grew up with in the 50's-70's.

I totally agree less is better with cooking/grilling fish - Hey I have an idea, I'll trade a fresh caught salmon for a fried catfish (gag) any day of the week

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by ReturningWest

I totally agree less is better with cooking/grilling fish - Hey I have an idea, I'll trade a fresh caught salmon for a fried catfish (gag) any day of the week

You can catch some pretty big catfish in the ditches at the south end of Fern Ridge Reservoir outside Eugene. A fresh caught pan fried catfish fillet tasted pretty darned good.

The ingredients are important, but so is "don't screw it up." You can cook just about anything PNW style, as long as it is fresh.

[ReturningWest]

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

You can catch some pretty big catfish in the ditches at the south end of Fern Ridge Reservoir outside Eugene. A fresh caught pan fried catfish fillet tasted pretty darned good.

The ingredients are important, but so is "don't screw it up." You can cook just about anything PNW style, as long as it is fresh.

Thanks but I'm sooo not a fan of cat fish...give me fresh PNW salmon, halibut, trout, crab

[Deezus]

Last weekend my girlfriend and I went crabbing out in Tilamook Bay in Garibaldi from the fishing pier. We caught two decent sized male Dungeness crabs(after throwing back a lot of smaller crabs and females). We stopped over at one of the little fish markets in the Garibaldi port and bought a dozen Netarts Bay oysters for $8--and the woman threw in an additional six, saying it was the end of the day and she wanted to get rid of them...

So basically for the price of gas, some fish scraps for bait for the crab rings, $8 for the oysters and few more bucks at the store for sourdough bread and salad, and we had a nice dinner of two Dungeness crabs and a dozen and a half oysters. To me, that's Pacific NW eating at it's best...

[Hawk J]

Originally Posted by ReturningWest

Thanks but I'm sooo not a fan of cat fish...give me fresh PNW salmon, halibut, trout, crab

I agree the Salmon, etc are mighty tasty when prepared properly..

Catfish deepfried fillets are reel tasty when caught from clean water, & weigh 2 or 3 lbs, thereabouts...Fry up some sliced taters & onions, some homemade coleslaw, cornbread, cold beer. ...YUM

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by Hawk J

I agree the Salmon, etc are mighty tasty when prepared properly..

Catfish deepfried fillets are reel tasty when caught from clean water, & weigh 2 or 3 lbs, thereabouts...Fry up some sliced taters & onions, some homemade coleslaw, cornbread, cold beer. ...YUM

I think ReturningWest had a close encounter with a bad cook. It's certainly possible to screw up any food, and fish is pretty delicate.

As you point out, bad water will mess up a fish too. I get my fish out of the ocean or clean fresh water. A lot of the catfish in the South are farmed, and packed in pretty densely. Fish poop is tough on bottom feeders like catfish.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

You can catch some pretty big catfish in the ditches at the south end of Fern Ridge Reservoir outside Eugene.

There's also some excellent catfishing on the John Day river east of The Dalles.

One of the biggest catfish I ever caught nailed a 3" plastic bait I was using while smallmouth bass fishing in the late afternoon at LePage Park.

Talk about a surprise.

[Hawk J]

Golden Dipt beer batter seafood mix, is one we've often used fer Catfish,etc. Tasty, YUM...

McCormick Golden Dipt Beer Batter Seafood Batter Mix (10 oz.) Buy Groceries Online - Grocery Delivery - Mail Order

Brownlee Res & the 'Snake River' also have good catfishin'. Crappie tooo.

[ReturningWest]

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

I think ReturningWest had a close encounter with a bad cook. It's certainly possible to screw up any food, and fish is pretty delicate.

As you point out, bad water will mess up a fish too. I get my fish out of the ocean or clean fresh water. A lot of the catfish in the South are farmed, and packed in pretty densely. Fish poop is tough on bottom feeders like catfish.

Yup, many many southern cooks, who boil vegies with bacon fat pieces until it's mushy or batter and fry 'em. I can't get past catfish, I've tried it several times and it always tastes like dirt, it could be that we really have muddy waters down here but it could also be the way it's prepaired. Sometimes I think grease is a food group down here. I can't tell you how many small mom and pop places there are with "southern food" all you can eat and they ALL boil and fry to the nth degree.